In the last week it has become clear that there are significant concerns among our members regarding the Executive Committee’s position on the proposed Barham River Resort. As this situation has arisen after notice of the AGM was given, under Clause 30(5) of the Rules of Association, the matter could not be formally dealt with at this meeting.

Consequently, a Special General Meeting of all members will be held on Monday 13 November, 7pm at Captains at the Bay. The sole item on the agenda will be the proposed development. Members will be invited to express their views, move and pass a resolution in accordance with the majority vote. This resolution will then become the Chamber’s position on the Barham River Resort.

This date has been chosen in accordance the Rules of Association requiring at least 14 days’ notice for a Special General Meeting. Note that we have been informed that submissions regarding the resort will be considered after the formal closing date for objections.

A Special General Meeting Agenda can be downloaded here. A proxy form can be downloaded here. Note that proxies must be submitted at least 24 hours prior to the meeting and can only be given to a current member.

After a long campaign from the Chamber, the Colac Otway Shire has joined the move to reopen Marriners Falls. At the February 2018 Council meeting, Shire Councillors voted 7-0 to lobby DELWP, the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change and others to reopen Marriners Falls walking track because of its value to the local community and tourism. Reopening the Marriners Falls walk is a key objective within the Apollo Bay Destination Action Plan.

Well done Shire – and well done Cr. Jason Schram for putting this forward.

The Colac Herald is also right behind the campaign and is looking to feature stories, memories or pictures of Marriners Falls. Please send them to Alison Martin at the Colac Herald: alison@colacherald.com. Send them in whether it’s the fall’s history, what they mean to you, your family or your kids – or to you as a child growing up in the Bay. Apollo Bay Radio is also on board – so pop in to speak to Tony Webber on air at the Youth Club on Saturday morning 9.30 -11am or call Caroline Wren to set up an interview.

However, it will take a bit of time and effort to achieve success. If you’re happy to get involved to help put a some pressure on the pollies then email timcobb@optusnet.com.au or call 0418 529 387

In order to gain more support for the re-opening of Marriners Falls the Apollo bay Chamber of Commerce & Tourism has formed a facebook group called “Friends of Marriners Falls”. It is a public group that anyone can join and in just a few weeks has attracted a lot of support. We hope the forum on the facebook group, along with that on this website will contribute toward evidence that the people of this community along with visitors to the region value Marriners Falls as a favorite local tourist attraction. The more members and concersation about Marriners Falls online the better. Please join the Facebook group and post your own stories and photographs there, or feel free to comment on this website.

This group will petition further to express that our community want to have access to this very special local nature walk and that we believe that it is an attraction as comparatively safe as hundreds of others in the state. This group will be resourced by the Apollo Bay Chamber of a Commerce and Tourism and aim to lobby DEPI & the Minister for environment & climate change for a solution to enable the reopening of the beautiful walk. Potentially the group may also find ways to assist Parks Victoria in reopening the walk and maintaining it in the future through sourcing funding and physical assistance from volunteers.

Currently we are waiting on contact from DEPI regarding the promised survey on the MNarriners Falls walk. At last weeks meeting Cr. Frank Buchanan explained to the attendees that DEPIs regional manager would be in contact with both Colac Otway Shire and the Apollo Bay Chamber of Commerce & Tourism to initiate the survey. Ideally we would like the survey to form a basis for a report to state that with some works and potential re-routing the walk is safe for public use – contrary to the previous report that occurred at the time the falls were first closed to the public.

If you want to officially become a “Friend of Marriners Falls” please reply to this email with the information filled in below. At this stage your commitment to this group will not be time-consuming.

We will be establishing a Facebook group in the near future and are looking for people to provide their own personal “Stories of Marriners Falls”. If you or someone you know would like to offer a story or account of their own experiences of Marriners Falls we would love to develop a catalogue of these. Please email stories through or post to PO Box 273 Apollo Bay VIC 3233.

We are also looking to collect photographs of Marriners Falls and the walk to use for promoting our group. If you have any we would love to have copies of these. You can either send digital images to this email address or contact Jo Birley on 0419162683 to arrange to have your older photographs scanned.

If you are interested in playing a larger role in the friends group we would like to hear from you. If you have experience in marketing through social media, design & publication, have media contacts or consider yourself a spokesperson please contact us to be more heavily involved.